Shikhar - Movie Review

(Review done for InFiCA)

Seems like the latest fad in Bollywood is making "meaningful", yet mainstream, cinema. Director John M. Matthan's latest movie - Shikhar - tries to pass on a meaningful message to the audience, but fails miserably due to a weak screenplay & some mediocre performances. The underlying message is not new, it tries to present the perennial clash between capitalist & socialist ideologies. However, the story treads on rather hard to believe incidents & turns.

Gaurav Gupta (Ajay Devgan), better known as GG, is a shrewd builder who has seen meteoric rise in very less time. He doesn't mind getting the job done by hook or by crook. He has his eyes set on the Songarh area for his dream project - Golden Gate City, which will be a self-sustained city with all the modern facilities & luxuries. The only problem is a small aashram - Rishi Van - which is mentored by Guruji. Guruji himself owns a big garment firm but has abdicated it in pursuit of his dream - to turn the desolate hills of Son Garh into rich forest by planning trees and thus making the lives of natives better. Guruji's son, Jaydev (Shahid Kapoor), is a young fresh-from-school boy given the responsibilities to hold the reins of the corporate empire by his father. In order to get his work done, GG lures Jaydev into a partnership & feigns friendship with him. GG doesn't stop short of even using his girlfriend, Natasha (Bipasha Basu), to seduce Jay. How Jay deals with the contrasting values of his father & GG and the inevitable clash between the two, is the story of Shikhar.

Film's first half is relatively engrossing. The characters of GG and Jaidev are established in details. In the second half, movie gets derailed from the track. The climax of the movie fails to impress and looks somewhat ludicrous (If the CM don't see the plants, the lease will be cancelled - so burn the plants and the chief justice giving an arrest order on the spot!). Ajay Devgan appears once again as a cunning & shrewd 30-something. He could've done better with a little less styling & a bit simpler clothing. He has put honest efforts to play his part, but the script looked to let him down, especially in the second half where the spotlight shifts to Shahid Kapoor & Devgan's role loses the flow & smoothness. Shahid Kapoor looks highly inspired from Mohan Bhargava of Swades, down to the cotton check shirts! Its not without any reason that people take him as a SRK clone. His acting is the biggest drawback of the movie. Neither does he look mature enough, nor does his wooden acting skills make it any better. The ladies of the movie - Bipasha & Amrita Rao - are mere fillers & of no significance to the plot. Bipasha is restricted to his "Eye candy + 1 fight + 1 item number" routine. Amrita Rao plays a simple girl with strong values and blah blah blah for the thousandth time. Her character gets really annoying just after the interval. Her character could've been scrapped to save some time & to save audience from some serious torture. Tough luck for her, most irrelevant & irritating dialogues are given to her character, "Tum anaath nahi ho na", "Tum bigad gaye ho Jai"..etc. Javed Sheikh, who plays Guruji, is average. That role could be as well played by Aloknath, Anupam Kher, Kulbhushan Kharbanda or any other character artist. Then we have a apparently highly inspired from Paris fashion designer, who keeps on saying "Voila" anytime & every time at every single slightest opportunity. You feel like hanging him from the Eiffel Tower shoving the Eiffel tower up his @ss! He isn't the only unnecessary & tangential character in the movie. There is one shuddh-hindi-bhashi MA,LLB dude (Sushant Singh wasted in such a pathetic role) & Farha as workers at the Rishi Van.

The music of the movie isn't good enough to keep the viewers interested. No other song than the hit song - "Fitna Dil" - can be called good and most of them appear to be put in at irrelevant places in the movie.

Though Shikhar is a movie made with the right ideas in the heart & brings forth a relevant issue of our times, the slow and shady script makes Shikhar a below average affair. This is the second movie by Mathan after Sarfarosh which came out six years ago. Shikhar doesn't stand any chances against the chance less blockbuster, Sarfarosh.

My rating: 2/5